FROM JOHN DEREK YARED ANDEMIKAIL NORVELL: PINKSTER AND AFRICAN AMERICAN NEW YORK

“Pinkster” is the Dutch term for the fiftieth day after Easter, which closes the Paschal season. Bantu African captives from Congo and Angola brought their celebration with them when they were taken as captives to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (now Manhattan) in 1626. They were the first Catholics to reach New York shores, and they were using a liturgical rite known as the Congolese rite that had begun in the fifteenth century.

In the mid-fifteenth century, Portuguese explorer Henry the Navigator undertook circumnavigation of Africa, believing the Congo River could be the passage which would take them to the Ethiopian Empire of Prester John, from which they could sail to India and the Far East. Through interpreters, they met a Congolese man named Mbanza Manikongo who saw rosaries on the habits of the priests accompanying the explorers. A cross appears in the Congolese symbol called a Yoma, which represented the religious relationship of the Congolese and their vassal states across the river. The Yoma represented the whole world and the life of each individual, all children of the one God, Nzambi. The priests told Manikongo the story of Christ and explained the crucifixion and resurrection. Manikongo was so moved that he declared that the Congolese rituals around the Yoma found their fulfillment in the sacrifice of the Mass, and he converted to Catholicism. Subsequently the whole empire and the Angolan vassals across the Congo converted as well. Nzambi was given the appellation Mulopwe, or “Great God Almighty,” and a church was established in 1491. Both the Yoma and the Nkisi cross are embedded in the wall of the African Burial Ground National Monument here in New York.

In 1626, a Portuguese ship kidnapped eleven men on the Angolan side of the Congo, intending to sell them as slaves in Brazil. The ship was stopped by a Dutch vessel who took the captives on board, but instead of returning them to the Congo, the Dutch took them to New Amsterdam. Without priests in this new land, the men remembered the story of the church in the Acts of the Apostles, and they established a king like the Manikongo bishop kings in their home country. Pentecost, or “Pinkster Dagh” in Dutch parlance, was the day chosen to establish the African Pinkster King.

Pinkster became as popular as Christmas and spread throughout the middle Atlantic colonies. By the Revolution, the entire northern half of the new nation from Maine to Maryland celebrated Pinkster (or its derivative, “Lection Day”). In the tumultuous years that followed, Pinkster waned. In 1811, Pinkster celebrations were outlawed in Albany and the state Capitol was erected over Pinkster Hill. The African Burial Ground was renamed George Washington Park to permanently end all future celebrations.

Working at the State Division of Human Rights, I petitioned the governor for a Pinkster proclamation in 2010, and celebrations were held at the Seneca Village site and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. Pinkster was recognized by the state and city of New York in 2013 for the first time since 1811, and Pinkster celebrations are now an annual event at the African Burial Ground National Monument in Lower Manhattan.

2026 will be the 400th anniversary of Pinkster and of African Americans New York. We hope to host celebrations around the city and state and are forming a select committee of historians, activists, artists, educators, elected officials and religious figures to work with the African Burial National Park to develop a curriculum to teach students about Pinkster, plan a fitting monument for the forgotten burial ground at the state capitol, rename the park Pinkster Hill, and make Pinkster Saturday a national holiday. All are invited to a Pinkster celebration at the African Burial Ground National Monument at noon on Saturday, May 27.

Dr. John Derek Norvell, historian and activist, is the president and co-founder of the African American Pinkster Committee of New York City. He studied at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts and the City University of New York. He formerly worked at the New York State Division of Human Rights. He is a member of a Roman Catholic parish—a parish also dedicated to Our Lady—near his home here in Manhattan. He frequently worships with us and considers Saint Mary’s his second parish home.

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

We pray for the sick, for those in any need or trouble, and for all those who asked us for our prayers. We pray for those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this week; for those who are traveling; for the unemployed and for those seeking work; for the incarcerated; and for those living in the midst of warfare or with drought, storm, inclement weather, flood, fire, or earthquake.

We pray for the members of the Board of Trustees of this parish and for the members of the Search Committee.

We pray for all who are in pain and trouble and all who suffer from injustice and oppression of any kind. We pray, too, that God may forgive us for the wrongs we have done: for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty.

We pray for peace throughout the world, and especially for the people of Ukraine, Sudan, Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Yemen, and Myanmar.

We pray for reconciliation among the churches and people of the Anglican Communion.

We pray for Steven, Penny, Pat, Carlos, Christopher, Barbara, Richard, Chuck, Alexandra, James, José, Nadira, Paris, Charlotte, Chelsey, Pat, Erica, Anthony, Mark, Liz, Keith, Brent, Carl, Marie, Thomas, Jennifer, Susan, Sylvia, Harka, Bethel, Gigi, Julie, Carole, Suzanne, Sharon, Liduvina, Carmen, Karl, Margaret, Greta, Quincy, Ava Grace, Willard, Phyllis, Jim, Barbara, Bruce, Robert, Abe, Gypsy, Hardy, Randy, Margaret, Bob, and Peter and Allan, priests.

We pray for the repose of the souls of Marjorie Ross, Joanie Peterson, Tina Turner, Joseph Hough, pastor; and those whose anniversary of death falls on May 28, Russell E. Glover (1888), Willett Bronson (1917), Honor Kane Anderson (1925), Louis Claude Craig (1931), Eileen Louise Whittle (2007), and Joseph Gayle Hurd Barry, priest and rector of Saint Mary’s (1931). May they rest in peace and rise in glory.

Hymn for the Day of Pentecost: Veni Sancte Spiritus (“Come Holy Spirit”) (Taizé Chant)

Come, Holy Spirit, from heaven shine forth with your glorious light.
Veni Sancte Spiritus.

Come, Father of the poor, come, generous Spirit, come, light of our hearts.
Veni Sancte Spiritus.

Come from the four winds, O Spirit, come breath of God; disperse the shadows over us, renew and strengthen your people.
Veni Sancte Spiritus.

Most kindly warming light! Enter the inmost depths of our hearts, for we are faithful to you.
Without your presence we have nothing worthy, nothing pure.
Veni Sancte Spiritus.

You are only comforter, Peace of the soul. In the heat you shade us; in our labor you refresh us, and in trouble you are our strength.
Veni Sancte Spiritus.

On all who put their trust in you and receive you in faith, pour out all your gifts.
Grant that they may grow in you and persevere to the end. Give them lasting joy!
Veni Sancte Spiritus.

A MESSAGE FROM FATHER WOOD: CORPUS CHRISTI

I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the blessed sacrament . . . There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth. (“Letter 43,” J. R. R. Tolkien, to his son, Michael)

At 9.30 AM on Sundays this past year, a group of Saint Mary’s parishioners gathered over coffee for deep study of the Holy Eucharist, our principal act of worship in the Episcopal Church. We examined the Eucharist in Sacred Scripture and from the perspective of the church fathers, the medieval divines, and bishops and theologians from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. And despite our hours of study, we only scratched the surface of this wonderful sacrament, which is both source and summit of the Christian life. Now, as we approach the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, we have an opportunity to draw those threads together in a set of practices designed to glorify God, deepen our conversions, and form us more fully into what we are—the Body of Christ, given as bread for the world. Specifically, you’re invited to participate in (1) a novena, (2) a series of nine holy hours, and (3) a Corpus Christi procession.

So why are we undertaking these practices now? It all goes back to the class. We returned often to the question of how the Eucharist transforms and equips us for mission. “Mass” and “mission” even come from the same root—the Latin Mass dismissed the congregation with the words, “Ite, missa est,” meaning roughly, “go, you are sent,” sending us out to be “Christs” to the world, blessing everyone we meet. If the Mass is a “mountain-top” experience, an encounter with the transcendent, a mini-transfiguration, so to speak (Luke 9:28-36), then we’re called to mimic the disciples, following Jesus back down the mountain to heal and “transfigure,” which is to say “transform,” the lives of those he meets. As the Mass ends, God sends each one of us out, transformed and empowered, “to do the work God has given us to do.”

This is why I believe it’s so important for us to return to Times Square on Sunday, June 11, at the end of Solemn Mass on the Feast of Corpus Christi. This practice is nothing new. From the days of the earliest Christians, the sacrament has been reserved for the sick or those in prison. By the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325, reservation was occurring in monastic settings. Much later, in the thirteenth century, Pope Urban IV instituted the Feast of Corpus Christi. He also commissioned Saint Thomas Aquinas to prepare the readings, antiphons, and collects and to write the hymns for the feast, including the well-known and much-loved Eucharistic hymns O salutaris hostia and Tantum ergo sacramentum. The tradition of processing with the Blessed Sacrament on Corpus Christi dates to the fourteenth century. Our procession through Times Square gives public witness to Saint Mary’s devotion to “this great Sacrament,” which we so greatly revere.

I also invite you to join me in nine days of prayer called a “novena.” In the Western church, a novena (from the Latin word novem, meaning “nine”) is a period of private or public devotion, by which it is hoped to obtain some special grace. General observance of novenas is quite modern, dating only from the seventeenth century, but the model for the devotion is the nine days’ preparation of the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary for the descent of the holy spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1.13 ff.) Novenas may be performed in church, at home, or anywhere prayers are appropriate.

This year, Saint Mary’s will use the approach of the Feast of Corpus Christi as an opportunity to pray for God’s blessing on our parish. Beginning on the Feast of the Visitation (May 31) and continuing through the actual date of Corpus Christi (Thursday, June 8), I’m asking our parish family to add to your daily devotions a particular prayer for Saint Mary’s. (It should be noted that here at the parish we transfer the celebration of the feast from the Thursday after Trinity Sunday to the following Sunday—this year June 11—for what we think are good pastoral and practical reasons.) Copies of the novena will be available on the ushers’ table by May 31, and here is a link to a .pdf of the text. One way to pray the novena is to do so during your own daily prayers, to be sure, but you are also welcome to join us for a series of Holy Hours at 11:00 AM in the Lady Chapel on each of the nine days (with the exception of Sunday, June 4, when we gather for Evensong and Benediction at 5:00 PM). As my friend Father Nathan Humphrey says, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament “takes that brief moment of wonder, love, and praise that we experience between the time the priest places the host in our palm or on our tongue and we consume it, and it stretches that moment out in time and space so we have the leisure to reflect and meditate on the wonderful mystery of our redemption—a time warp in the sacramental space-time continuum that allows our hearts and our minds to catch up to something true, good, and beautiful that usually hits us at warp speed.”

I hope you’ll join me in these three practices. Beginning May 31, let’s thank God together for the life and ministry of our parish, and pray that in the coming months we will live even more deeply into our calling to make Christ present in our city. Then join us on June 11, when we return to Times Square in procession for the first time since the pandemic! — SW

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S

Our regular daily liturgical schedule, Monday through Friday, is Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, and Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM. Holy Hour is offered on Wednesday at 11:00 AM and Thursday’s Mass includes a Healing Service. On Saturdays, Mass is celebrated at 12:10 PM and Evening Prayer is prayed at 5:00 PM. On Sundays, Solemn Mass is offered at 11:00 AM and Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM.

Friday, May 26, 5:30 PM, The Centering Prayer Group meets in Saint Benedict’s Study.

Sunday, May 28, The Day of Pentecost, Procession and Solemn Mass 11:00 AM, Evening Prayer 5:00 PM. The Easter Season ends as the sun sets on the Day of Pentecost. The Paschal Candle will be extinguished after Evening Prayer on Sunday and will be taken to its place in the baptistery. The Adult Education class does not meet on Sunday morning. Classes will resume after Labor Day.

Monday, May 29, Weekday after Pentecost (Proper 3) & Memorial Day. Federal Holiday Schedule. The church opens at 9:00 AM and closes at 12:00 PM. Mass is celebrated in the Lady Chapel at 10:00 AM. Morning and Evening Prayer are not said in the church. The parish offices are closed.

Wednesday, May 31, The Visitation, Mass in the Lady Chapel at 12:10 PM; Sung Mass in the Church at 6:00 PM. Father Matthew Jacobson will preach and celebrate at both Masses. The setting of the Ordinary at the Sung Mass is Missa Dixit Maria by Hans Leo Hassler (1564–1612). Hassler’s four-voice motet, “Beata es, Virgo Maria,” for the Feast of the Visitation will be sung during Communion. The service will be played and conducted by David Hurd. The service will be sung by Emma Daniels, Kirsten Ott, Christopher Howatt, and Muir Ingliss. The Sung Mass on the Visitation will not be livestreamed.

Friday, June 2, 5:30 PM, The Centering Prayer Group meets in Saint Benedict’s Study.

Sunday, June 4, Trinity Sunday, Solemn Mass and Te Deum 11:00 AM, Evensong and Benediction 5:00 PM.

Commemorations during the Week of May 28, 2023: Said Mass at 12:10 PM in the Lady Chapel

Tuesday, May 30, The First Book of Common Prayer
Wednesday, May 31, The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Thursday, June 1, Justin, Martyr at Rome, c. 167
Friday, June 2, The Martyrs of Lyon, 177
Saturday, June 3, The Martyrs of Uganda, June 3, 1886
Sunday, June 4, Trinity Sunday (John XXIII, Bishop of Rome, 1963)

PLEASE READ: NEWS OF SAINT MARY’S

Barbara Powell, the wife of Father Peter Powell and an active member of our parish community, underwent back surgery recently. She is now at home in Westport, Connecticut, where she is recuperating and doing physical therapy. Please keep her and Father Peter in your prayers. We will be seeing Father Peter a good deal less during the month of June, since he will be staying close to home helping Barbara as she recovers from surgery. We look forward to their return to the parish. May it be soon!

At the Solemn Mass on the Day of Pentecost, Sunday, May 28, the Mass setting will be Daniel Santiago Castellanos’s Missa Brevis. This will be the first time that this newly composed setting will be sung during a liturgy. Danny has sung in the Choir of Saint Mary’s since 2018. He has sung both tenor and countertenor during his time here. We hope that we can convince Danny to come to Coffee Hour—as he often does!—on Sunday morning so he can receive our thanks and answer any questions. Danny is a very talented young musical artist, and we are grateful to him for the many gifts he has shared with us here at the parish both as singer and now as composer. (See “About the Music” below for more details about the Mass setting.) — JRS

Christian Education and Formation 2022-2023: Our adult-education classes on Sunday morning have ended and we now begin our summer break. Thank you so much to all who taught and all who came to study, seek, learn, and participate this year. If you attended a class, book discussion, or quiet day this year, we hope you will fill out our end-of-year evaluation. This link will take you to the one-page, two-sided evaluation form. You can fill out the form and give it to an usher or to one of the priests. Or, if you’d prefer to remain anonymous, you can fold it up and put it in the collection basket. If you didn’t attend a class this year, take a look at the form and see if there’s something you’d like to say or add. We welcome your feedback.

Neighbors in Need: This month’s distribution event took place on Friday, May 19, from 1:30 to 3:00 PM. We had a surge of guests that day, and we served over 50 people. Our biggest needs now are clothing, especially shoes (sneakers or athletic shoes and other sturdy shoes), men’s and women’s pants and tops, and coats for next winter as well as jackets, t-shirts, polo shirts, and women’s tops suitable for spring and summer. And, of course, donations help us to purchase toiletries and underwear.

Neighbors in Need participates in a program of the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) called refashionNYC. The city has provided us with a collection bin that allows us to set aside donated clothing that is either unusable or not likely to be useful to our current guests. This clothing is placed in the bin which lives in Saint Joseph’s Hall and, periodically, Housing Works (HW), a DSNY partner, comes and empties the bin. HW then sorts the castoff clothing, sells what they can, and recycles the rest. We are grateful to DSNY and HW for making this program available to us, and we are happy that all clothing donations are either used or recycled which keeps our donations out of landfills.

Next month’s Neighbors in Need distribution event will take place on Friday, June 16. Please contact us at neighbors@stmvnyc.org for more information about volunteering, making a donation, or about the goals, work, and methods of Neighbors in Need.

AIDS Walk 2023: It was a great day, and we thank you!

This past Sunday, twenty members of the Saint Mary’s AIDS Walk Team participated in the four mile Walk in Central Park. There were twenty-five people on the team this year, though a few, such as Father Sammy and Father Jay, fundraised, but were at the parish for Solemn Mass. Father Matt celebrated a Vigil Mass on Saturday evening for the walkers. Due to our strong performance last year, Saint Mary’s was given a table in the gold team area of the AIDS Walk Village, where we gathered for breakfast. We didn’t disappoint in 2023 and lived up to our gold-team status! We have raised $63,762 so far and are ranked second among all teams in the Walk (and first among religious organizations). This is based on 259 different donations that came from people in 27 different states in the U.S., the District of Columbia, Canada, and Scotland! These aren’t the final results, however, as donations can still be made until June 16. If you would like to donate to our team, please click here. Thanks to everyone who supported us in 2023! You are the reason that we are so successful with this important outreach event each year!
— MaryJane Boland, Clark Mitchell, and Father Matt Jacobson

Donations for altar flowers may be made for Sunday, June 4, Trinity Sunday; and for Sunday, June 18 and Sunday, June 25. There are many available dates in July and August. To inquire about available dates and to arrange a donation for the altar flowers for a Sunday or a particular feast day, please contact Chris Howatt. For questions about flowers or the Flower Guild, please speak with Brendon Hunter.

COMING UP

Sunday, June 4, Trinity Sunday, Solemn Mass and Te Deum 11:00 AM, Evensong and Benediction 5:00 PM. This will be the last offering of E&B until the fall.

Sunday, June 11, The Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ: Corpus Christi, Solemn Mass and Procession to the Times Square Neighborhood with the Blessed Sacrament 11:00 AM. Following the procession, Mass ends with Eucharistic Benediction in the church. Evening Prayer 5:00 PM.

Father Matthew Jacobson will be away from the parish on vacation from Monday, June 12, until Thursday, July 6.

Father Sammy Wood will be away for some days of vacation, June 21–24. He returns to the parish on Sunday, June 25.

Father Jay Smith will be away from the parish on vacation from Wednesday, July 5, until Wednesday, August 2.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST, MAY 28, 2023

Composers of organ music in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries produced a wealth of pieces based upon the melodies of the well-known hymns of their time. Some of these were plainsong melodies or chorales based upon plainsong. Others were tunes of the time or adaptations of contemporary popular songs, but they all took on a life of their own when sung with sacred texts in worship. Even instrumental settings of these melodies conjured the devotional intent of these sacred songs, and such pieces were used as introductions to singing or as substitutions for sung stanzas. Today some of these chorale melodies are not recognized as widely as they were in times past, but many organ pieces based upon them continue to have great expressive power. Bach’s setting of the chorale Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott (“Come, Holy Ghost, Lord God”), today’s prelude, is one of Bach’s Great Eighteen Leipzig settings. It delivers the rushing wind and burning flame of Pentecost in a brilliant and energetic torrent of counterpoint which dances and cavorts above the chorale melody stated on the pedals in long notes. Whether or not one recognizes the melody, the excitement of Pentecost can be felt in this music. The postlude today is Bach’s setting of Komm, Gott, Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist (“Come, God, Creator, Holy Ghost”), the German adaptation of Veni, Creator Spiritus (“Come, Creator, Holy Spirit”). In his setting, which is also from the Great Eighteen Leipzig collection, Bach states the chorale melody twice. The first statement is in the uppermost voice, heard above an oddly off-beat accompaniment. The accompanying voices then break into flowing fantasia and the chorale melody re-appears for its second statement in long notes in the bass register.

On Sunday morning the newly composed Missa Brevis by Daniel Santiago Castellanos (b.1995) receives its premiere performance. Daniel is a composer, vocalist, and pianist based in New Jersey. His piece for mezzo-soprano and piano, Death is nothing at all, won first prize at the 2019 NYC songSLAM competition. Ensembles that have performed his music include the Semiosis Quartet, JACK Quartet, The Orchestra Now (TŌN), Da Capo Ensemble, and The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. He received two bachelor’s degrees from Bard College Conservatory of Music, and received a master’s degree in music composition from Mannes School of Music in May 2023. Daniel has been a member of the Choir of Saint Mary’s since the fall of 2018. For more information visit daniel-castellanos.com. Daniel writes, “I composed this Missa Brevis for the Choir of Saint Mary the Virgin in 2023. My intention was to explore and pay homage to the numerous musical tropes I have encountered while singing in Anglican choirs. The Mass draws inspiration from various Renaissance and plainsong cadences that we frequently perform here on Sundays. The Gloria begins with a decorated plainsong chant sung by the lower voices, followed by lively punctuated syllabic rhythms from the choir. The Sanctus maintains this energetic rhythm, while the Benedictus slows down to a more reverent pace and showcases one of my favorite cadences from the Renaissance era, known as a “false relation.” In this cadence, two leading tones compete with each other to reach the tonic, the home key of the piece. Tallis loved to use this cadence in his music, although my use of it may remind one more of Stravinsky. The Agnus Dei, arguably the most expressive movement, features a solo that alternates between the tenor and countertenor voices. I wanted to create a personal piece for myself to sing, aiming to imbue the final movement of the Mass with a sense of vulnerability and spiritual intimacy. This choice also acknowledges my experience of singing both tenor and countertenor during my time at Saint Mary’s.”

The motet during Communion on the Day of Pentecost is O Lord, give thy Holy Spirit by Thomas Tallis (c.1505–1585). Tallis was one of the most foundational composers of English church music. His long life and musical career included service under four English monarchs—Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor, and Elizabeth I—with all the shifts in the church’s liturgical and institutional life which these different reigns occasioned. Along with William Byrd (c.1505–1585), Tallis enjoyed an exclusive license to print and publish music which was granted by Elizabeth I in 1575. He was one of the first musicians to compose for the new Anglican rites of the mid-sixteenth century. The preferred style of the time tended toward less florid liturgical music which favored clear text declamation. Tallis’s O Lord, give thy Holy Spirit is an anthem in four parts for Pentecost. It was originally composed in Latin with the text beginning “Domine, Spiritum Sanctum tuum in cordibus nostris” and was published in 1641 or earlier. — David Hurd

THE BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN

Entrances to the Garden are at 150 Eastern Parkway, 455 Flatbush Avenue, and 990 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. The month of June is when roses bloom. From the Garden’s website: “Be sure to visit the Cranford Rose Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden during the month of June. Blooms abound in the central beds, which contain modern hybrids, as well as those alongside, which contain species and old garden roses (those developed before the first modern hybrid in 1867).

“The month of June should be pretty glorious with many hybrids blooming repeatedly. Things will be a little quieter during July and August, says the Cranford’s curator . . . with a second flush occurring in September.

“You can also consider becoming a member of the Botanic Garden. Wednesday evenings from May 31 through September 6 are for members only. Enjoy the Garden during the twilight hours on these special nights when the Garden grounds, shop, and Canteen stay open exclusively for members. Wednesday, June 14, 2023, from 6:00 to 8:30 PM is Picnic Night at the Botanic Garden. Stroll through the Cranford Rose Garden and chat with the Garden’s new director of Horticulture, Shauna Moore. You can bring your picnic basket to Cherry Esplanade, purchase a rose-inspired cocktail at the bar, and enjoy live music by the New Wonders.”

This edition of the Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith, except as noted. Father Matt Jacobson also edits the newsletter and is responsible for formatting and posting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best.